The Pentagon's 2015 budget is expected to include cuts to the active duty Army to bring it to the lowest size since 1940. (Contributed photo/Department of Defense)

The Department of Defense's 2015 budget will propose
shrinking the U.S. Army to its smallest level since before World War II.

Pentagon Chief Chuck Hagel will preview the budget today.
Among the cuts to benefits and programs are reductions in the number of Army
soldiers, as well as to the Marine Corps.

The force reductions are in response to financial austerity
as the country ends two protracted foreign wars. The Pentagon has long said
the end of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan will mean a smaller but more
efficient fighting force that's capable of short missions but not sustained
conflicts.

"We're still going to have a very significant-sized Army," a
senior Pentagon official told The New York Times. "But it's going to be agile.
It will be capable. It will be modern. It will be trained."

The Army previously announced it was eliminating 12 Combat
Brigade Teams and was scheduled to drop to 490,000 troops from a post 9/11 high
of 570,000. The 2015 plan will include dropping that number to between 440,000
and 450,000, The Times reports.

That number would mean the smallest Army since 1940, just before the massive troop buildup for World War II.

The Army National Guard would see a 20,000 person reduction
to 335,000 in Hagel's plan. The Army Reserves would be lose 10,000 members from
its current 205,000. The Guard would also see its Apache attack helicopters
transferred to active-duty Army, which would transfer its Black Hawk
helicopters to the Guard.

The Marine Corps would be cut from 190,000 to 182,000.

The plan, which is expected to face stiff opposition in Congress and among veterans groups, will also include calls for a new round of Base Realignment and Closure.